Redefining the language

One thing the left appears very good at is taking a commonly used word and twisting its meaning into something that suits their agenda. Mainstream media is complicit with leftist politicians in this effort.

Almost anything is possible if one has the power to change the definition of words. Take for example the word truth. Once upon a time truth had a clear and concise meaning. In today’s culture a number of people have come to believe that there is no absolute truth. For them all truth is relative. That makes any agenda they choose to pursue as “true” regardless of facts or historical and conventional wisdom.

The most recent example is President Trump calling what Democrats in the House are doing as a lynching. That was immediately pounced on as racist. Why? Because in the 19th and early 20th centuries the southern Democrat enforcement arm at the time, the Ku Klux Klan, sometimes lynched blacks.

Never mind the fact that lynching first started during the Revolutionary War as a punishment without due process for British sympathizers. It was supposedly named after the brother of the man who founded Lynchburg, Virginia. Wait, weren’t both revolutionists and sympathizers both mostly white? How, then, can lynching be considered racist?

The largest mass lynching reportedly took place in 1891 in New Orleans. The targets of that lynching were not any of today’s minorities. The targets were Italian. Huh. Still not racist in today’s terms. Further, ignore the fact that Joe Biden said Clinton during his impeachment hearing was being lynched, and Clinton agreed. The word wasn’t racist then, so what changed?

Witch hunt is another term Trump uses often to describe Democrat pursuit of a reason to get him out of office. Oddly, this is rarely used. Could it be because most of the supposed witches of U.S. history were white women?

Another term is “illegal immigrant.” By the absolute definition of the term, it is an occupant of a country who has not entered that country legally. In today’s liberal lexicon, there is apparently no tolerance for such a term. The new term is “undocumented immigrant” which is an oxymoron since if you are undocumented you are illegal. It just sounds better.

Hate speech is another redefined term. The literal definition is speech that expresses hatred for a particular person or group of people. Oddly, there is no legal definition for hate speech under U.S. law. Further, there is no exception in the First Amendment for hate speech. Yet a majority of Millennials believe the First Amendment should be rewritten to restrict hate speech. Yet when asked to define it, they are unable to do so.

Cultural appropriation is another common term. This is not a redefined term, but a relatively new one. Quite literally, it is the appropriation of elements of one culture by another culture. So in theory if you go to an ethnic restaurant, you are appropriating that culture. It seems in my mind to be much ado about nothing, to say nothing about being rife with hypocrisy.

Here is an example. Men and women are different sexually. That is just science, despite heavily promoted feelings to the contrary. There has also been an outcry over politicians having participated in “blackface” in earlier years. That raises a question. If it is not acceptable for a white man to dress like a black man, is it not appropriation for a man to dress as a woman?

Here are some others. Fascist and Nazi. These are represented as being on opposite ends of the political spectrum, one being far-left and the other far-right. The reality is that they both have autocratic and socialist philosophies. Global warming and global cooling are now the catch-all, climate change. Patriot is now only a football team. We are supposed to be globalists, not nationalists. Income inequality is a phrase used to justify socialist ideas. Racism is discrimination of one ethnicity against another, unless you happen to be a conservative black, Asian, or Hispanic. Then you are a racist anyway.

The battle of ideas that made this country great has been replaced by the battle of feelings. Outrage has replaced honesty and is a tool to get one’s way. Or as reformed leftist Dave Rubin says, “I have renamed progressives as regressives. They no longer judge people as individuals but a collective.” In other words, the ethnic or belief group you belong to determines how you’re judged. “Regressive” is a redefinition I can agree with.